Abstract

From late 2018 to early 2019, a mysterious character called “Momo” became the subject of an international news cycle about the dangers of children's internet use. This news reportage and social media commentary circulated around the now infamous image of “Momo”: a close-up photograph of an inhuman but woman-like face with stringy black hair, bulging, lid-less eyes, a pig-like nose, and a wide, angular smile. The global discourse about Momo resulted in an urban legend that operated in dual registers: one across adult-oriented news and social media, and another amongst children's and youth participatory digital cultures. This chapter's analysis of the development of a dual-layered urban legend about the character illuminates how Momo continues longstanding cultural anxieties about telepresence and electronic mediation into the participatory digital age.

Keywords: Momo, urban legend, children's digital cultures, YouTube, global mediated unconscious

Towards the end of 2018 and in the first few months of 2019, a mysterious character called “Momo” became the subject of an international news cycle about the dangers of children's internet use. Pervasive across this international reportage was the now infamous image of the Momo character: a close-up photograph of an inhuman but woman-like face with stringy black hair, bulging, lid-less eyes, a pig-like nose, and a wide, angular smile. The news stories detail a sinister “challenge” that targets children online, which is supposedly enacted by shadowy figures with unclear motives via social media who use the unsettling image as their profile picture to pretend to be “Momo.” As well as delivering a dangerous challenge to children via social media sites and apps – a challenge that compels children to complete increasingly risky tasks, with the final task reportedly being suicide – Momo's visage apparently appeared in children's content on YouTube. In one example oft cited in news reports, Momo's image accompanies a song that roughly follows the tune of the nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosy” (the tune of which is echoed in the children's teasing rhyme “Na na na na naaa naaa”). As the Momo image appears, a young child's voice can be heard singing: